The New Normal

It would be easy to think from the news coverage, that following the fires which started one month ago, the entire town of Santa Rosa was gone. Indeed, we thought that ourselves as we fled in the dark from one parking lot to another in the wee hours of October 9th.  It was not difficult to see the flames surrounding the town, but it was difficult to tell where they actually were. 

Dawn didn't come for most of us until almost two weeks later. Just about the entire town was evacuated, displaced and dislocated. We sat wherever we had taken refuge and waited. Many people were evacuated from the place where they had gone initially because it was no longer safe. It was a strange and stressful existence. 

It has been a couple of weeks since we returned home,  and a semblance of normalcy is beginning to take return. We are discovering that  most neighborhoods are intact, most businesses are unharmed and most schools have reopened. Those who are able, are doing whatever they can to help those who were left with nothing. Everyone has been affected and everyone is struggling to recover. The whole town is affected, but the the spirit of the people who live here remains intact as the new normal evolves.

As we resume our routines we are beginning to see that the fires were almost like a jigsaw puzzle, indiscriminately burning one house to the ground, without touching its neighbor, reducing some trees to ash while others nearby are still green. Propelled by 80mph wind gusts, a fire which began in Napa County as a spark, roared over a mountain range,  and took out two subdivisions  in Santa Rosa in Sonoma County in four hours. 

We drove through what is left of Fountaingrove , one of those communities, today.  It is hard to comprehend the fact that the blackened trees, twisted metal, burned out cars and acres and acres of rubble are that all that remain of the homes of some of the city's most affluent citizens. This is the new reality, but it exists side by side with the old one. Further along the road was an old barn framed by the changing leaves of a vineyard and guarded by a massive heritage oak tree....